Lance Barrett
28 games graded behind the plate.
3,919 correct of 4,254 graded takes (92.1% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 96.8% · worst 86.8%. Grade is accuracy on taken pitches vs the rulebook zone; ABS is the Automated Ball-Strike System challenge record (how often the robots overruled the call).
What we can't say about Lance Barrett
This season is 4,254 graded takes, which puts Lance Barrett's overall accuracy at 92.1% ± 0.8 (95% interval). That is a real measurement against a league spanning about four points end to end. It is not enough for anything finer, and here is the arithmetic rather than our word for it:
- how the zone moves with two strikes — about 851 takes, so ±1.8 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 355 takes, so ±2.8 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 71 takes, so ±6.3 points. (a given pitcher is worked once or twice a season.)
And a note on the number itself: an accuracy figure is a rate plus a convention for what counts as a miss. Ours grades every taken pitch against the rulebook zone as the feed reports it. Others are more forgiving — UmpScorecards counts a call wrong only when the pitch was at least 90% likely to be a strike — so two sites can print the same percentage about the same umpire and not mean the same thing by it. How the grade is built.
The overturn rate is a different kind of number and does not belong beside the grade: it is accuracy on the 143 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 143 is enough to print it with its own denominator, which is what we do — but it still ranks umpires by how often they are appealed, not by how often they are right.
The road to the plate
Lance Barrett
Born in Fort Worth, raised in Crowley — an umpire who graduated high school early to start umpiring school in January 2003.
From Crowley
Lance Cole Barrett was born on October 3, 1984, in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in Crowley. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram told the story of the kid from Crowley who graduated early from high school to enroll in umpiring school in January 2003 — six-foot-five, heading for a profession before most of his peers had their diploma.
His major league debut came on October 1, 2010. Before the 2014 season, MLB promoted him to the full-time staff, and at 29 he was the youngest full-time umpire in the majors. Postseason assignments have followed: Division Series in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024, plus the 2022 League Championship Series. He also worked the 2021 All-Star Game.
The Games
He was at third base on May 5, 2021, when Baltimore's John Means faced the minimum 27 Seattle batters and threw a no-hitter. Two summers earlier, Barrett worked all four games of a June 2019 series between San Diego and Colorado — 92 combined runs, a major league record for a four-game set. His first career ejection came on April 16, 2012, when he tossed Chicago White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper.
He is listed on MLB crew O alongside Alfonso Márquez, Mike Estabrook, and Malachi Moore. We have graded him behind the plate in 21 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, MLB.com, Wikipedia. Umpire data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.
By the Desk · filed 2026-07-23 — the profile reads as of its filing; the grading record above is live · every fact in this piece comes from a sourced research pack and clears an independent fact-check, and nothing is edited after filing.
The games
| Game | Grade | Favor | ABS | Blue Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CWS @ MIN2026-08-29 | D | 0.0 CWS | 4/6 | Corner-to-corner and then some. |
| CHC @ AZ2026-08-24 | C+ | 0.3 CHC | 6/8 | Hawkeye clocked in early and stayed late. |
| LAA @ HOU2026-08-20 | B- | 0.0 LAA | 3/5 | Off the corner was close enough tonight. |
| COL @ SF2026-08-14 | B- | 0.9 COL | 4/6 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| MIL @ SD2026-08-10 | B+ | 0.4 SD | 2/6 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| CLE @ CIN2026-07-29 | A- | 0.2 CIN | 0/3 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| LAD @ NYM2026-07-25 | C | 0.5 NYM | 1/4 | The zone stretched its legs. |
| SF @ KC2026-07-21 | A | 0.5 SF | 4/5 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| TB @ BOS2026-07-17 | A- | 0.7 TB | 0/2 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| MIL @ PIT2026-07-11 | A | 0.4 PIT | 1/5 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| NYM @ ATL2026-07-06 | B+ | 0.2 ATL | 7/11 | The players kept asking for a second opinion — and kept getting one. |
| DET @ NYY2026-07-01 | B | 0.6 DET | 4/6 | You had to throw it down Broadway to get the call. |
| TOR @ CHC2026-06-19 | B+ | 0.2 CHC | 4/6 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| COL @ ATH2026-06-13 | D | 0.0 COL | 1/3 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| CIN @ SD2026-06-08 | D | 0.6 CIN | 7/10 | Hawkeye did more talking than the umpire tonight. |
| LAA @ TB2026-05-29 | C+ | 0.1 LAA | 3/4 | Squeezed the edges; the hitters didn't mind at all. |
| DET @ BAL2026-05-24 | C | 0.9 DET | 2/3 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| ATL @ MIA2026-05-20 | B | 0.2 MIA | 1/2 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| LAA @ TOR2026-05-10 | A- | 0.8 TOR | 2/4 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| ATH @ PHI2026-05-06 | D | 0.6 ATH | 7/9 | A few too many trips to the challenge cart. |
| BAL @ NYY2026-05-02 | A | 1.3 NYY | 0/3 | A tilt to the evening — the numbers say which way. |
| AZ @ MIL2026-04-28 | B+ | 0.3 MIL | 2/3 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| STL @ HOU2026-04-19 | C+ | 0.2 STL | 2/4 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| BOS @ MIN2026-04-14 | B | 0.5 MIN | 3/5 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| MIA @ DET2026-04-10 | B+ | 0.0 DET | 3/5 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| ATL @ AZ2026-04-05 | C+ | 0.1 AZ | 1/3 | Off the corner was close enough tonight. |
| NYY @ SEA2026-04-01 | B | 0.4 NYY | 5/8 | A busy night for the machines in the truck. |
| DET @ SD2026-03-27 | B | 1.9 DET | 3/4 | The zone leaned, and the ledger noticed. |